Tag: Living Room

I hate blinds. It feels too college-y and they are a bitch to get clean. The real reason is that I just can’t work them. I’m retarded. So I wanted to replace all the blinds in our house with curtains. But curtains can get really expensive, so I decided to make some (not all, just some). I do love the way they came out. We also get to look at the curtains and sing Polka Dot Afro.

Sheers:

My mother brought me some fabric when she was visiting from India. She was supposed to help me make them, but she spent the entire week watching Downton Abbey and Sherlock, so I ended up making them myself (full disclosure – she did help measure and cut them, while watching Downton Abbey).

Stitching the polyester & silk blend was the biggest p.in.a. I used fusing tape to hold the fabric in place so that I could actually stitch it. Then I ripped out all the fusing tape.

Panels:

I was so exhausted doing the stupid sheers (it took me a day to each one of them), so we went and found some gold-ish curtains at Target. We had to go to three targets to get 4 panels because they never had enough of the right color and right length at a single store. They were too long, so I did adjust the hems on these. We don’t have black-out curtains here, because I like the light in the living room (one of the main reasons we bought this house).

Rods:

The rods are from Lowe’s. We went on a shopping spree one time and went out and bought curtain rods for all the rooms in one go. They are double rods, that are not too plain and not too fancy. So, they do accommodate the sheers and the panels without having to get the cheap & ugly white sheer rods.

My mom did this. She took out all the stuffed animals and arranged them on our couch. It’s silly to have so many toys at my age. Not all of them have names, but each one of them has a story attached to them, and I can tell you when and where I got them, who was with me, etc.

Currently, these guys are living in bags – we need to find a permanent spot for them 🙂

The previous owners of our house had painted the living room this lovely shade of puke, and got the mirror in there. While some people feel that a large mirror makes the room look bigger, I have the opposite opinion. For a large space like this, it just reflects the clutter, especially since you can see the kitchen area.

We hired someone to take the mirror out. Mainly because I didn’t want 7 years of bad luck!

We also decided to paint the living room before we moved in. That was a bad first project to do. With no idea about how to paint anything, we decided to tackle the biggest (1000 sq. ft of wall), darkest and most strangely shaped room in the house. It took us four coats (2 primer & 2 paint), one week and one nervous breakdown to cover up the green.

I did like the way it turned out, and think it opened up the place a lot more than with the mirror.